Review: This Splintered Silence by Kayla Olson

Can we just talk about how I’m here for ALL the space thrillers? Give me space, give me thrillers, give me more.

Summary

Lindley Hamilton has been the leader of the space station Lusca since every first-generation crew member on board, including her mother, the commander, were killed by a deadly virus.

Lindley always assumed she’d captain the Lusca one day, but she never thought that day would come so soon. And she never thought it would be like this—struggling to survive every day, learning how to keep the Lusca running, figuring out how to communicate with Earth, making sure they don’t run out of food.

When a member of the surviving second generation dies from symptoms that look just like the deadly virus, though, Lindley feels her world shrinking even smaller. The disease was supposed to be over; the second generation was supposed to be immune. But as more people die, Lindley must face the terrifying reality that either the virus has mutated or something worse is happening: one of their own is a killer.

Review

This Splintered Silence is the kind of book that hooks you and makes you unsure of everything you ever thought. We really get into the head of our main character, Lindley, as everything sort of falls apart around her.

Part of what This Splintered Silence excels at is making you wary and fearful. We don’t know how it’s going to end and unlike a lot of books, I had no idea where this was going to go. There were a lot of red herrings and misdirects thrown into it, but even till the end I had no idea what direction was even up. These threads and secrets kind of fell into place and, like a true thriller, you had to keep reading. It demanded your attention and your fear.

I felt bad for Lindley because she has the world on her shoulders. Also she’s been dealt a hard hand! At the same time, I couldn’t really connect emotionally. Sure I could empathize with her, because she has so much pressure and I too feel like that is so stressful. But she was sort of closed off and didn’t let anyone in. In some ways, I feel like that’s kind of the point of the book. She has a hard time trusting people and letting them in – even the readers, even, to some degree, herself.

This Splintered Silence is all tension, rough edges, and old grudges. At its core, it’s a thriller mystery that keeps you reading.